[Trombone-l] Alessi, Gordon link

[Wayne Dyess]

On Aug 25, 2006, at 4:20 AM, Adrian Drover wrote:

>> From: Wayne Dyess
>>
>> Time for that 2nd computer.  Some friends would say time for a "real"
>> computer.
>
>
>
> Still using your Charles Babbage difference engine, Wayne?  Must be  
> hard
> work cranking those heavy wheels.
>
> A.


Ha!  Nope.  I got one o' them Chinese contraptions, an abacas.   
Greatest thing.  Who needs them new fangled 1840's "engine" thangs????


:-)
\



Charles Babbage's Difference Engine--begun in 1823 but was never  
completed.  A more ambitious machine was the Analytical Engine.  It  
was designed in 1842, but unfortunately it was also only partially  
completed by Babbage.  Babbage was truly a man ahead of his time:  
many historians think the major reason he was unable to complete  
these projects was the fact that the technology of the day was not  
reliable enough.

the same could be said of trombonists, so I've heard.

WD